Nekkra at the Pokemon World Championships 2019 (Picture: Rewt)<\/span><\/p>\nHow did you get into casting and esports? <\/h3>\n
When I first came out of college, I really wanted to get my PHD. I was super set on going into academia to be a professor. And then, my parents passed away. <\/p>\n
It derailed a lot of my plans in terms of what I wanted to do. I didn’t feel like, at the time, I could commit myself to a six year commitment and it made it very difficult for me to figure out long term what I wanted to do. It was such a transition period when all of this happened. <\/p>\n
I’m super comfortable talking about it now – I think it’s a really big part of my origin story and a huge reason why I got into esports. I spent a lot of the time afterwards in a pretty dark place. Video games were always something that were able to make me smile and brought me lots of joy, so I played a lot of games and I got into multiple different competitive scenes – playing Overwatch, Hearthstone and Pokémon for a while. <\/p>\n
Everything then started falling into place. I went to BlizzCon in 2018 and that’s when I realised there’s so many different outlets I could go into in the world of esports – whether tournament organising or competing. I didn’t even really think about it as being called an ‘esport’. So I came back from BlizzCon after having multiple conversations with big names in the industry like Seltzer, Anna Prosser and Goldenboy. They were encouraging me to just dive in headfirst to see where the world of esports can take me. I was really inspired when I came back from BlizzCon. <\/p>\n
That’s when I decided I was going to try a lot of different things. I tried tournament organising, community managing, being a producer, I got a couple of opportunities to be on the microphone and that’s what stuck to me the most. <\/p>\n
I was doing a couple of online community casts for an Overwatch community called Owlet, and I fell in love with the art of broadcasting. I had so much fun that I didn’t really realise what I was getting myself into at the time. A couple of days after my first few casts in Overwatch, I got a call from a friend who asked if I casted anything else, specifically Hearthstone. That’s when I went, “holy sh*t”, this actually might be a job. <\/p>\n
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How did you get into casting Pokémon specifically from there? <\/h3>\n
I got my very first paid gig in the commentary space in Hearthstone. From there, things took off. I was doing community casts for Pokémon specifically at Rutgers University – I’m really thankful to those organisers for giving me a shot. I then did my first big regional in Collinsville for Critical Hit. <\/p>\n
A couple months later, The Pokémon Company reached out to me and said, “Hey Rosemary, we have a job for you; how would you like to commentate NA International Championships for 2019?” My jaw hit the floor. That was the biggest event I had ever been invited to and I was just shocked. The Pokémon Company wants me to cast their video game? No freaking way!<\/p>\n
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The Pokemon Players Cup II global finals take place this weekend (Picture: YouTube) <\/span><\/p>\nEverything just started to explode. They asked me back for Worlds 2019, I went to Australia for Oceania International Championships, and I’ve done everything up to the point COVID hit. And then Pokémon Players Cup happened. <\/p>\n
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Wow so it’s all happened in a short space of time. Has it fully sunk in yet? <\/h3>\n
Not really. It didn’t hit me until I was at the Dallas Regionals<\/a> and I had people coming up to me asking to take my picture with me. Then it hit me that people actually know who I am and I might actually be famous? What a weird feeling that is. Especially coming from such a scientific, structured background and going into a world where you’re using the other half of your brain. It’s so eye-opening and so humbling in a way to have these kind of experiences. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Has it been a learning curve dealing with being recognised? <\/h3>\n
Yes it is weird. I actually opened a PO Box so I don’t have to put my actual address on things anymore. And trying to make sure I take precautions now, just to make sure people don’t know where I live. I have to also filter myself because you don’t know the people that you’re talking to online – you don’t want to give them everything about your personal life or history because you never know what they’re going to do with that kind of information. <\/p>\n
So I feel it has been a learning curve in terms of adjusting from a very private, humble life to going into a spotlight and having this… I don’t want to say ‘big light’ because it still hasn’t hit me yet what’s happening. But it’s a light nonetheless and it’s so weird. <\/p>\n
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What’s it been like casting remotely? Are you yearning for normality?<\/h3>\n
Oh yeah no doubt about it. There’s nothing quite like being in front of a live audience that you can feed that energy off of, and you can really get that chance to hype them up and enjoy what’s happening. <\/p>\n
One of my favourite moments in my casting career was when I got a chance to commentate Simone Lim winning the Oceania International Championships. I remember how wild the crowd was going and it just started to make me cry on broadcast because we got a chance to share in this amazing moment for this wonderful young little girl. <\/p>\n
Everybody around was enjoying the same moment with us, and you don’t get that at home. You definitely don’t get the same kind of feel. You’ve got Twitch chat, but it’s not the same as being able to enjoy the company of everybody else and enjoying those special moments together.<\/p>\n